Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
He frowned. “You don’t need to work, you know. I can help.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I didn’t come here because you have money. I came because you have the skills needed to protect us. Besides, I like to work, and I’m used to keeping busy, even in the summer when teaching is over. It’s important to me.”
He nodded. It was second nature to him to offer help, either monetarily or with his skills. But he wasn’t surprised she turned him down. Even as a teenager, she hadn’t liked when he bought her meals, so he’d taken her to less expensive places and insisted he pay on a date, anyway. He already caught a glimpse of her pride yesterday, when she said she’d pay him back for the phones.
He respected her feelings and found her attitude a refreshing change from the women he occasionally dated. “I’m sure we can work something out at the bar.”
As in, she’d work, and he’d pay her in cash from his personal money. He wouldn’t put the bar at risk by paying her unreported income, but he needed to keep her calm and by his side, not freaking out because he was handing her money.
He wouldn’t let her, or Dani put themselves in danger because Hadley felt guilty about accepting handouts.
For now, they had phones to buy and a laptop for him to fix and he was aware she’d fight him on the cost of it all.
Chapter Seven
After a long day of shopping, Hadley walked to her room in Zach’s house, fell onto the bed, and realized just how damned tired she actually was. For the forty-eight hours she’d been alone with Dani, driving east and staying in crappy motels, she’d woken up at every sound, fear making her heart pound in her chest. Last night, she’d tossed and turned, worrying about Dani, who’d sent Zach one text from Layla’s phone.
“Tell Hads, .”
That was all. Teenagers, she thought with a roll of her eyes.
Tonight she and Zach were going to Serenity and Michael’s for dinner so Hadley could see her sister, and she was grateful the family had invited her without her having to ask.
She’d left Zach downstairs, turning on their new phones, putting them on his carrier’s plan, an argument she’d lost on the way home, and installing VPN to make sure their cell and laptops were untraceable.
Yes, laptops. Which brought her to the other reasons she was probably feeling wiped out. Talking about the past this morning had been rough. Then they’d spent two hours in the store quibbling over which phone models were right for her and Dani, only for her to lose the battle. She’d insisted they could live with the least expensive models but even those were beyond her means. Zach had taken her to the Apple store and insisted upon purchasing top of the line phones, maxed out with storage she didn’t need.
Then he’d held firm on buying Dani a new laptop because not only was hers old, but the screen had cracks, something he’d seen when he’d inspected the computer last night. As the salesperson called into the back of the store, asking someone to bring out their purchases, he’d told them to make it two, one for her as well.
Short of throwing a tantrum in front of a packed crowd, she’d been forced to accept gracefully and was now worrying about how she was ever going to pay him back. But considering her acceptance was the first time she’d seen a genuine smile from him since she’d arrived, a part of her found it worth swallowing her pride.
Even grumpy and pissed off, he was sexy as hell but when he’d grinned at her? Her panties had nearly melted off. At sixteen, she barely knew what sex was, though she’d planned on giving him her virginity on prom night. But watching him in action and happy? Her underthings were soaked, her nipples hard, and she knew she was in trouble.
It wasn’t easy being in Zach’s house and dealing with seeing him again for the first time in years. Sexual attraction was one thing. But she also had so many emotions vying for her attention, she didn’t know what to do with them all. And ever present was the fear that had brought her here in the first place.
If she thought she’d be able to nap now, there was no way.
* * *
Zach drove them to his parents’ house in his Mercedes convertible. He pulled up to a gate and punched in a code. After the doors finally opened, they made their way up a tree-lined driveway. His parents had bought the house a year ago, shortly before Zach purchased the second Back Door bar.
They’d wanted a vacation place large enough for their huge family. With Harrison and Winter spending most of their time at their home out here instead of the city and Zach having a place of his own, they purchased a nine bedroom to accommodate the ever-growing family. It had become a second home for everyone that came to visit.